Sharing an Internet Connection over a Wireless Network.

Learn how sharing an internet connection using wireless networking saves you time, money and equipment maintenance.

After having set up your wireless network, you will probably be eager to share an Internet connection, as this is the reason most people have a wireless network. Remember that Windows is equipped with Internet Connection Sharing, while setting it up can sometimes be a bit complicated.

How Internet Connection Sharing Works

To set up Internet Connection Sharing, you need to pick one computer to be the 'gateway' to the Internet, and then make use of this for Internet access with your other computers.

What happens is requests for data as well as responses from the Internet are being sent out through the gateway back and forth across the network ('routed') and your computer. Only the gateway computer is the one directly connected to the Internet. You can also use this to connect two computers to share dial-up internet connection but it would be much much slower than DSL or cable.

To make the whole process more understandable, try to think of computers as if they were people. Let's call these people Bob, Fred and Alice. They're having a drink in a bar, but only Bob has the necessary money (in other words, he has a 'connection' to the bar). Fred or Alice cannot go and order a drink at the bar, but can ask Bob to buy them one. Bob can then bring them the drinks, and they can have them as they usually would.

Setting It Up: The Gateway

The following point is for those who have already set up your wireless network, without having connected it to the Internet yet.

First of all, you need to set up the computer with the modem connected to it - being the gateway, it will supply all other computers with Internet access. On this computer, click the Control Panel, then go Network Connections. It is here you can run the Network Setup Wizard after choosing 'Set up a home or small office network'.

Go on by clicking next through the wizard until you get a screen called 'Select a connection method'. Here pick 'This computer connects directly to the Internet. The other computers on my network connect to the Internet through this computer'. Then, you only have to click next until you finish with this section. Answer 'yes' to turn on file and printer sharing when it's suggested to do so.

Now, your computer can finally become a gateway to the Internet.

The Wireless Network

Next, you need to set up the other computers on the network to be able to use the gateway you just previously generated. For this, you need to run the Network Setup Wizard on every computer, but this time make sure to select 'This computer connects to the Internet through another computer on my network or through a residential gateway'.

If your computer previously used a dial-up connection and you now wish to have shared Internet connection with it, you will have to modify some settings in the web browser. Open Internet Explorer, then click the Options screen you find in the Tools menu. Go to the Connections tab and choose 'never dial a connection'. Remember to untick the following three options: 'automatically detect settings', 'use automatic configuration script' and 'use a proxy server'.

The Trouble With Internet Connection Sharing

Let's go back to our example. What would happen with Fred and Alice if Bob left? Well, the computers on your network would be in a similar trouble: with the gateway computer switched off, none of them will have access to the Internet.

There is another problem, though. Although Internet Connection Sharing is suitable for the web and email, some problems may arise when you are doing other things, such as downloading documents from filesharing networks, or applying video conferencing.

In these cases you will need to change certain settings of your gateway computer and after a while, it can become really annoying. If this is the case, the best solution is to have a wireless router (read our article 'Create Always-On Networks with the best Wireless Router').

Despite some issues you may run into, wireless networking is still the way of the future and hugely convenient too!

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